India fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah was the biggest positive for his team in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. Bumrah was all over the Australian batters in the series and also emerged as the best bowler across the two sides.
During the series, Jasprit Bumrah troubled almost all the opposition batters. Australia’s young batting sensation Nathan McSweeney was no different as he had a tough time against the world’s best bowler.
Playing his debut series, McSweeney was unfortunate to face a bowler of the class of Bumrah with the new ball and hardly got a chance to establish himself at the Test level. Bumrah was all over McSweeney which forced the selectors to drop him for the last two Tests.
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Nathan McSweeney breaks silence on facing Jasprit Bumrah
During a podcast on Willowtalk, Nathan McSweeney was asked about his experience of facing Jasprit Bumrah during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The opener admitted that Bumrah is an incredible bowler as he pitches the ball in awkward areas for a batter.
“Yeah, tough work is probably an understatement. He’s an incredible bowler. I was probably naïve going into it, never faced him before and (thinking) he’ll be fine. But he’s an incredible bowler that has a great skill but just relentless ability to pitch the ball in the area where you don’t want as a batter,” McSweeney revealed.
Nathan McSweeney was just playing his debut Test series but JAsprit Bumrah didn’t give him any chance to gain any sort of confidence. Bumrah picked up McSweeney’s wicket four out of five times during the first three Tests.
He registered scores of 10, 0, 39, 10*, 9 & 4 as Bumrah was all over him throughout the series. He constantly beat his bat with impeccable lines and lengths and had the batter on the sea just like the other Australian batters.
What gave Nathan McSweeney the confidence?
The opener further admitted that all the Australian batters had a tough time facing Bumrah and that gave him some sort of confidence that he is not the only one getting troubled by the ace India pacer.
“So, it was a very tough challenge but also gave me a hope that no one kind of had great success against him and everyone was trying to tackle him at the same time and no one was playing him with ease, which gave me a little bit of confidence,” .said McSweeney.
Nathan McSweeney scored 72 runs in the three Tests he played during the series at an average of just 14.40. After some troubled times at the crease, he was dropped for the final two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney where Sam Konstas replaced him.
Jasprit Bumrah in BGT 2024-25
Jasprit Bumrah picked up 32 wickets in five Tests during the series at an incredible average of 13.06. He also emerged as the highest wicket-taker of the series across both teams. Bumrah was relentless in his bowling and had all the batters on the floor.
However, he unfortunately got injured in the final Test in Sydney which hampered India’s chances of drawing the match later. Under Bumrah’s captaincy, India won the first Test of the series in Perth and he was also adjudged the Player of the Match for picking up eight wickets in the match.
